Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing jumping on a low cost cell
Speaker 1: phone plan. Joel, do I look tired to you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I see the bags under your eyes fell like sleepy.
Speaker 1: There is a reason I asked, is my brother in law,
Speaker 1: him and his wife they had a baby last night? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It so congrats to them, they had a healthy baby boy.
Speaker 1: But the reason I'm tired is because they're one year old,
Speaker 1: almost a year old. Daughter spent the night with us
Speaker 1: last night and tonight as well, but you know, she's
Speaker 1: not used to being in her house, sleeping in the
Speaker 1: pack and play, and we're not used to waking up
Speaker 1: a couple of times a night tending to a baby. Man,
Speaker 1: I gotta say it's a to relief to exit that
Speaker 1: stage as apparent finally your kids sleeping through the night,
Speaker 1: and then to go back to getting woken up in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night. I can't imagine it's so
Speaker 1: hard to get drugged back into that place again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, especially without the adrenaline of having your own
Speaker 1: like fresh baby. You know, like it's like I can
Speaker 1: handle that as long as I about like the cue baby.
Speaker 1: I haven't even met the new baby yet. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been working all day and I haven't been able
Speaker 1: to get over to the hospital. Maybe we should do
Speaker 1: an episode about babies. How much do babies cost? Well,
Speaker 1: we need to do one, especially on because I feel
Speaker 1: like every year the statistic comes out about how much
Speaker 1: a child cost to raise. Oh yeah, and I feel
Speaker 1: like it's kind of ridiculous, and we should definitely talk
Speaker 1: about the cost of raising the kid and how to
Speaker 1: minimize those and so let's do an episode on that soon.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think people would love that. And if
Speaker 1: you've had a baby recently, why don't you go ahead
Speaker 1: and send in a picture of your baby, because let's
Speaker 1: see the beautiful babies. Yes, I'm not even joking. I
Speaker 1: think love to see a picture of your baby. Seriously.
Speaker 1: But if you're a listener and you've had a baby
Speaker 1: in the past just a year, yeah, if if you
Speaker 1: got a cute baby, let's see the babies. In the
Speaker 1: best place to post it so we can all see
Speaker 1: it is our Facebook group. So if you feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: some people don't feel comfortable posting pictures of this, But
Speaker 1: if you do post a pic of your super cute
Speaker 1: baby on our Facebook group and we will just comment
Speaker 1: with like Google eyes and stuff like oh yeah, hard eyes.
Speaker 1: I'm all about it. Babies are the cutest, all right.
Speaker 1: So congrats to Dan and Jeff. That's awesome. And by
Speaker 1: the way, the first time I met Dan, I remember
Speaker 1: Matt one of the first things that we hit it
Speaker 1: off about was disc golf. We both have this super
Speaker 1: intense love for disc off. Dude, he loves the disc
Speaker 1: oflf is true. And just in case anyone hasn't heard
Speaker 1: or has never played disc golf out there, it's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite sports for a lot of reasons. First,
Speaker 1: you're kind of walking through nature, and it's just kind
Speaker 1: of fun to spend a couple of hours outdoors checking
Speaker 1: a frisbee essentially. And although discolfers don't really like to
Speaker 1: call it frisbee, it's yeah, you're playing with a disc.
Speaker 1: But discolf is awesome because you can buy essentially two
Speaker 1: discs and have everything you need to play for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life for free. Yep, everywhere you play
Speaker 1: disc golf, it's free. It's just the best time. It's
Speaker 1: so funny to go out there with friends, maybe bring
Speaker 1: a beer too, and and just play disc golf. Man,
Speaker 1: it's the best. I miss it so much. I need
Speaker 1: to get back out there and maybe I'll take Dan
Speaker 1: in the new baby. Dan's actually who got me in
Speaker 1: my first two discs. Man. I think I three with
Speaker 1: you a couple of times and I would borrow maybe
Speaker 1: one or two year discs. But then Dan got me
Speaker 1: a driver and a putter, and I think maybe I
Speaker 1: found a mid range disc and that's in the woods. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, well, I only use the driver
Speaker 1: in the putter anyways. All right, and Matt today, the
Speaker 1: beer that we're drinking on the show is Casa Agria
Speaker 1: uh Zarza Marone from Oxnard, California, and it's a Flander
Speaker 1: style brown ale with blackberries, cranberries and raspberries. Dude, all
Speaker 1: the berries. Yes, Yeah, I was so so stoked when
Speaker 1: I saw those berries on there. So I can't wait
Speaker 1: to tell you guys about the beer at the end
Speaker 1: of the show. And just wanted to say thanks to
Speaker 1: my buddy Josh for bringing it down. He visited the
Speaker 1: A t L recently and we'd a little beer exchange
Speaker 1: and I've never had anything from Cossa Agria and I'm
Speaker 1: really excited to have this beer. So speaking of beer
Speaker 1: or alcohol, saw a report by the World Health Organization.
Speaker 1: But it's a report and they're saying, how five percent
Speaker 1: of deaths globally are attributed to alcohol. Five percent and
Speaker 1: that crazy. That seems like a lot, yeah, like one
Speaker 1: in twenty one in twenty deaths. And I'm sure that
Speaker 1: like they're conflating their numbers a little bit to include
Speaker 1: any sort of death that might be possibly related to
Speaker 1: some sort of alcohol involvement at all. But they were
Speaker 1: talking about it because there's little you know, there's lots
Speaker 1: of stories out there how they say, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: if you can have a little bit of booze, like
Speaker 1: a single glass of wine and night or something like that,
Speaker 1: it's actually good for your heart. And there's all this
Speaker 1: and they were just saying that, like, you know what,
Speaker 1: statistically speaking, it's still safer to not drink like at all.
Speaker 1: And you know, obviously we love craft beer a lot.
Speaker 1: Oh I wonder actually what the percentage of people that
Speaker 1: drink craft beer specifically, about the number is way smaller
Speaker 1: as far as death related incidents that are related to
Speaker 1: craft beer, partially because craft beer hasn't been long around
Speaker 1: all that long. Really that is true, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess I wanted to mention that too, because we
Speaker 1: love craft beer obviously, but at the same time, like
Speaker 1: we drink in moderation, we're not idiots, and we would
Speaker 1: encourage you to also be responsible. You know, we love
Speaker 1: having a delicious beer during the week together, you know,
Speaker 1: while we have an awesome conversation about money or something
Speaker 1: money related, but sometimes it's easy to get carried away,
Speaker 1: and we just want to encourage you to be smart. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and especially a beer like this, Matt, I mean, I
Speaker 1: get so excited to sip this beer slowly and to
Speaker 1: essentially over hours just enjoy the flavor. That's my favorite
Speaker 1: part about craft beer. And so it just doesn't lend
Speaker 1: itself to chugging back three or four and just get
Speaker 1: and getting hammered and so um. Something like this. It's
Speaker 1: just really nice to have a small glass and drink
Speaker 1: it really slowly. All right, Joel, let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: get started talking about low cost cell phone plans um.
Speaker 1: And first of all, we want to to encourage you
Speaker 1: to go back and listen to last week's if you
Speaker 1: haven't already listened to last week's, we did an episode
Speaker 1: on getting a deal on a new cell phone, and yeah,
Speaker 1: we covered a lot of great points there, and so
Speaker 1: this is sort of like part two of that cell
Speaker 1: phone life. Yeah man. And the problem is that many
Speaker 1: people are still paying way too much for their cell
Speaker 1: phone service. It's kind of like my parents randomly, they
Speaker 1: were paying for ao L after everyone else had jumped ship,
Speaker 1: like like for free with with the disks they get
Speaker 1: in the mail. Yeah, yeah, I remember that, but they
Speaker 1: were still paying. And there are still people to this
Speaker 1: day paying twenty five dollars a month for ao L
Speaker 1: even though a o L has been made completely free
Speaker 1: for their for their mail. Yeah, they're still paying for
Speaker 1: internet service through a o L because they just have
Speaker 1: never canceled it. So I think that last I read,
Speaker 1: there over two million people paying AOL a month essentially
Speaker 1: for nothing. That's probably like the worst statistic I've ever
Speaker 1: heard in my life, right, like like worst slash saddest.
Speaker 1: I'm like, who are these people who are just paying
Speaker 1: this without realizing it? And I feel like a big
Speaker 1: part of that, right, A big reason might be because
Speaker 1: we just don't talk about our finances enough. That's a
Speaker 1: big reason that you and I like talking about money
Speaker 1: is because it's something that isn't talked about enough, and
Speaker 1: we like being somewhat countercultural and stepping on people's toes
Speaker 1: and making people feel uncomfortable get it out in the open. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But a big part of it is because we want
Speaker 1: to talk about it. We want it to be normalized.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's like talking about how much you're
Speaker 1: paying for yourself phone service might be this thing where
Speaker 1: you feel that you don't have the freedom to talk
Speaker 1: about because you're like, oh, that's that's not really what
Speaker 1: my friends and I talked about. We talk about getting
Speaker 1: the new iPhone. You don't talk about like how much
Speaker 1: we're paying every month on cell phone service. But we
Speaker 1: would want to do is encourage you to be that
Speaker 1: person maybe in your friend group, to kind of challenge
Speaker 1: your friends to start talking about these things, to challenge
Speaker 1: each other to save money, because like if you're still
Speaker 1: friends in twenty thirty years, like instead you can be
Speaker 1: retired and having these conversations or like you know, while traveling,
Speaker 1: Like we just want you to to be maybe sort
Speaker 1: of like the be and you know, the beacon of
Speaker 1: hope of light when it comes to you and your
Speaker 1: friends finances. I think the cell phone bill for many
Speaker 1: people is actually really kind of equivalent to the A O.
Speaker 1: L bill for those two million folks that are still
Speaker 1: paying for it because a lot of people haven't shopped
Speaker 1: their cellphone bill in years, and so they're paying. They
Speaker 1: haven't seen how precipitously the prices have dropped when it
Speaker 1: comes to cell phone plans and how many cheap options
Speaker 1: there are out there right now. Because the average monthly
Speaker 1: cell phone bill is still seventy three dollars, that's crazy,
Speaker 1: mat Yeah, dude, that is very crazy. And like, so
Speaker 1: I did some quick math, and that amount every month, right,
Speaker 1: seventy three bucks invested over ten years, it's pretty close
Speaker 1: to thirteen thousand dollars, which is a ton of money.
Speaker 1: And real quick, that's if you take like a monthly
Speaker 1: expense and you multiply it by one seven three, right,
Speaker 1: a hundred seventy three, that essentially is that amount invested
Speaker 1: over the next two years compounded, Like, that's how much
Speaker 1: you know you would end up with. And that's a
Speaker 1: lot of money, right, that's a ton of money. Um,
Speaker 1: And since cell phone bills don't actually fluctuate on a
Speaker 1: monthly basis, you just kind of get used to paying
Speaker 1: the same amount. It gets you know, automatically deducted from
Speaker 1: your checking account or automatically paid from your credit card,
Speaker 1: and you don't notice the amount going out, and you
Speaker 1: don't think to shop. You're just paying the same amount
Speaker 1: every month. No matter what we're here to say, there
Speaker 1: are so many better ways to do it, so many
Speaker 1: cheaper ways to get cell phone service, and they're ultimately
Speaker 1: not going to creep your style at all, man. And
Speaker 1: that's part of why these cell phone planes don't get shopped,
Speaker 1: because you get used to paying the same amount. It's
Speaker 1: sort of on like the subscription model basis, right, It's
Speaker 1: a monthly bill and you just get used to paying
Speaker 1: it and it just gets absorbed into your budget. It's
Speaker 1: a set amount, it doesn't really change. And it's sort
Speaker 1: of like these new all these new subscription based companies.
Speaker 1: They kind of get you hooked, you know, or they
Speaker 1: get you interested, and you start paying it, and then
Speaker 1: you can just get used to paying it, and then
Speaker 1: you just never kind of fall off the wagon. You
Speaker 1: never really look at what you're receiving and saying, is
Speaker 1: this actually worth the money that I'm that I'm putting
Speaker 1: to Like that sock subscription that you jumped on, Dude,
Speaker 1: that's the real thing, is I think that's a real thing.
Speaker 1: But I mean like Blue Apron or Dollar Shave Club, right, Like,
Speaker 1: these are all the different subscription based companies and they're
Speaker 1: blowing up. And the reason that they're blowing up is
Speaker 1: because people sign up and it's just on cruise control.
Speaker 1: It just keeps going. And from a business standpoint, it's
Speaker 1: brilliant because they get someone on board and they know
Speaker 1: that the percentage of people who then turn around and
Speaker 1: say no, I don't want to do this anymore is
Speaker 1: so slim, and they just keep paying it. They keep
Speaker 1: amassing razors or a bunch of Blue Aprons. I don't
Speaker 1: know how it works, but like it's just something that
Speaker 1: they don't challenge themselves to, uh, to say no to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And ultimately, most of the people in our society they
Speaker 1: value convenience over cost. And definitely, and we're here to
Speaker 1: say it's actually not terribly inconvenient to pick a new
Speaker 1: cell phone plan. It's not going to be very difficult,
Speaker 1: but ultimately you can save so much your you can
Speaker 1: cut your cost to such a level that it can
Speaker 1: be a meaningful amount of money that you can save.
Speaker 1: All right, man, let's go ahead and get started and
Speaker 1: let's jump into it. So how to get on a
Speaker 1: low cost cell phone plan? Uh? The first thing that
Speaker 1: you want to consider is consider using your phone less,
Speaker 1: because if you use it less, you'll end up paying less.
Speaker 1: And what we're specifically referring to is data. Everyone wants
Speaker 1: to have unlimited data, but if you do, you're gonna
Speaker 1: pay for it. You need to ask yourself do you
Speaker 1: really need it or are you just looking sort of
Speaker 1: for that piece of mind where you think, well, I
Speaker 1: don't really know how much I'm consuming. I just want
Speaker 1: to have unlimited so I don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 1: That's a very worthwhile question, right, how much data am
Speaker 1: I actually using? Yeah? And there's a whole lot of
Speaker 1: things in life, right where we choose to use less
Speaker 1: of something in order to save money. Right. We turn
Speaker 1: the thermostat up in the summer to avoid using the
Speaker 1: electricity and the air conditioning. Right, that's a conscious choice
Speaker 1: that we make. And you can do the same thing
Speaker 1: with your cell phone. You choose to use WiFi most
Speaker 1: of the time you have access to a WiFi network
Speaker 1: if you're at home, or at work most of the time, right,
Speaker 1: you can jump on the WiFi network there, and so
Speaker 1: if you can do that and use less data on
Speaker 1: your phone, that's gonna be a way that you can
Speaker 1: hop on a lower cost plan. Yeah, and specifically as well,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about it as like a budget, right, so, like,
Speaker 1: look at your statements at the end of the month
Speaker 1: and look at how much you actually are using, Like,
Speaker 1: look at how much you are using of the allotted
Speaker 1: data that you're given every month. If it's unlimited, look
Speaker 1: at how much you're using, and if it's less than
Speaker 1: two gigs a month, we'll shoot. You don't need unlimited.
Speaker 1: You already fit within the two gigs are less sort
Speaker 1: of plan. With a little bit of thoughtfulness, you could
Speaker 1: easily even get that probably under one gig. But knowing
Speaker 1: where to start, right, if if I actually do think
Speaker 1: about it like a budget, you need to know where
Speaker 1: you're starting and then to see if that's even something
Speaker 1: that's possible for you. You might look at your statement
Speaker 1: and see that like, oh man, this past month, I
Speaker 1: used eleven gigs worth a data. There's no way I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get under two. And if so,
Speaker 1: that's sure like there's no sense and maybe trying to
Speaker 1: cut it down just a little bit, or to go
Speaker 1: through the pain and discipline of trying to get yourself
Speaker 1: under two. It's just not gonna be worth it for you.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be worth your time. Yeah, but if
Speaker 1: you're close, you can take a look at that building
Speaker 1: statement and you can see I'm using two and a
Speaker 1: half or three and a half gigs of data. And
Speaker 1: you know what, I really think I can jump on
Speaker 1: a WiFi network a little more frequently and just use
Speaker 1: less in general in order to save you know, forty
Speaker 1: fifty maybe even more dollars a month. Who I just
Speaker 1: noticed you said data. Do you say data or do
Speaker 1: you say data? I think I go back and forth.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think earlier I was saying data data.
Speaker 1: Oh snap, what was the kid's name on Goonies? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I didn't see the movie. Wait, you never
Speaker 1: seen the Goodies. I've never seen the Goonies? You shut up.
Speaker 1: I hate to admit it. Well, there's a little Gosh
Speaker 1: this gonna sound so racist. There's a little Asian kid
Speaker 1: and his name was data or I say it, you're Asian.
Speaker 1: It's allowed like you've heard people talk about booby traps.
Speaker 1: I was sending booty traps and they're like, no, it's
Speaker 1: booby traps. And he's like, that's what I said, booty traps.
Speaker 1: I can't believe you've never seen the Goonies. Dog pathetic.
Speaker 1: You're not pathetic. You're a little bit younger than I.
Speaker 1: You know, that's it. I'm like a year younger than you.
Speaker 1: But you missed you miss the Gooneys tram. You are
Speaker 1: really old, that is true. I think I had a
Speaker 1: Gooney's lunchbox, dude, Like it was that hard It was
Speaker 1: that hardcore to that into it. Yeah, okay, all right,
Speaker 1: or maybe I'm just envisioning my friends. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I can't remember so old. So ultimately, if you want
Speaker 1: to save on a cell phone, pland, one thing you
Speaker 1: need to do is to consider your carrier. Man. Mostly
Speaker 1: they're the same now, Verizon's network it still seems to
Speaker 1: be the best everywhere you go. I know there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people that travel all over the country,
Speaker 1: are in the mountain states, are kind of in more
Speaker 1: rural areas, and Verizon does work better in those places.
Speaker 1: But if you're in a major metropolitan city, if you're
Speaker 1: in the suburbs of a city. Uh, you're usually okay
Speaker 1: with a less fancy network, and Verizon definitely charges a
Speaker 1: lot more for you to be on their slightly better network. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great point. Also consider doing the family and
Speaker 1: friends plan. You know, if you can get more folks
Speaker 1: on your plan, that will often save you money, although
Speaker 1: that can be a huge pain, and single lines are
Speaker 1: also starting to get a good bit cheaper as well,
Speaker 1: so it may not even be worth the hassle. And
Speaker 1: I say this out of a personal experience. This is
Speaker 1: something Joel and I both do. We are on the
Speaker 1: same family ends planned and we have do we have
Speaker 1: ten people now or nine? We just I think we
Speaker 1: just have one drop off, but we were hoping to
Speaker 1: pick two up, so we'll see how it goes. We
Speaker 1: can we can go from nine to eleven. No, we
Speaker 1: were at nine, we went down to eight, and we're
Speaker 1: hoping to go back up to ten. Okay, we've got
Speaker 1: two more hopefully lined up soon. But it is a pain.
Speaker 1: I will tell you, it is a p So you're
Speaker 1: the one. I'll go ahead and set you up because
Speaker 1: you're the one that like the accounts under your name
Speaker 1: and you're the one that's basically charged with, you know,
Speaker 1: collecting cell phone rent from people you don't even know,
Speaker 1: because I got some friends actually they're like siblings of
Speaker 1: my friends. Like they're not even folks I know super closely.
Speaker 1: All that well, but I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: they're good for a dog. Sign them up. No, it's
Speaker 1: it's honestly, it's worked out really well for all of us. Okay,
Speaker 1: but it's just really changed in the last year and
Speaker 1: a half to two years maybe where cell phone plans
Speaker 1: for individuals have kind of started to decrease rapidly, almost
Speaker 1: to the point where family plans were for a minute,
Speaker 1: family plans were by far, by far the cheapest options.
Speaker 1: Couldn't even get close to that with a single or
Speaker 1: double plan, And now you're starting to get at that
Speaker 1: point with other providers that that that really, you know,
Speaker 1: ten separate lines can be close to the same price
Speaker 1: as a ten person family plan. Yeah, so our ten
Speaker 1: person family plan we're paying right now about twenty three
Speaker 1: about twenty three bucks a person, right, something like that.
Speaker 1: And when we first signed up, we were, you know,
Speaker 1: we hit a promotion, and that's something that will mention
Speaker 1: later you know, you gotta look for those deals, those promotions.
Speaker 1: But for a point there, how were we paying eleven
Speaker 1: dollars a line? We were paying eleven dollars, I know
Speaker 1: that for me a year. For a year, Kate and
Speaker 1: I were paying you two dollars a month, you know,
Speaker 1: and and we each had our own phone, and it
Speaker 1: was fantastic. Yes, and it's still great now. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like I said, the new family plans right of four lines,
Speaker 1: even those are rivaling what we're paying now is they're
Speaker 1: getting down close to three bucks for sure. Yeah. So, uh,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Matt specific providers, specific costs, and kind
Speaker 1: of where you should go as a single individual or
Speaker 1: a is a dual line or family plan. Right after
Speaker 1: this break, all right, Matt, we promised specifics, so let's
Speaker 1: get into it. We said that the prices for single
Speaker 1: line cell phone plans has gone down, and that is
Speaker 1: so true. So let's call out a few of the
Speaker 1: best companies to consider when you're looking for a single
Speaker 1: line cellphone plan. So one of my personal favorite companies, Matt,
Speaker 1: and one that's been around for quite a while now
Speaker 1: in this space that actually really has kind of changed
Speaker 1: the game for everyone involved. I feel like they've been
Speaker 1: one of the main competitors that spurred competition. Republic Wireless,
Speaker 1: you can for twenty do get unlimited talking and text
Speaker 1: with one gig of data, and then you can pay
Speaker 1: five dollars more per gig when you use more. That's
Speaker 1: one of the best deals out there on the market
Speaker 1: for a single line. Another one of the best deals now,
Speaker 1: which I kinda hate to say it, it's Exfanity Mobile,
Speaker 1: but it actually is a really good deal. So if
Speaker 1: you have a Comcast for your Internet service, you can
Speaker 1: get Exfinity Mobile. It's twelve dollars for again unlimited talking text,
Speaker 1: and you get one gig of data with that. So
Speaker 1: if you're a small data user, I would say Exfinity
Speaker 1: Mobile and Republic Wireless are two really great ones to consider. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: for someone like me, that might actually be you know,
Speaker 1: really good. I'm actually thinking for you, like how much
Speaker 1: time I spend at home, like working from home, like
Speaker 1: on WiFi. I mean that's all I do. I don't
Speaker 1: have a life, you know, I just like sit at home.
Speaker 1: I don't really have friends. I've said that about you,
Speaker 1: And so like, why do I actually need a cell
Speaker 1: phone plan that allows me to use it out in
Speaker 1: the world, like out and out in space. As long
Speaker 1: as you can use it in your caveable home, you'll
Speaker 1: be fine. Um, but no, I mean that's something that
Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier, like if if you're looking at a
Speaker 1: plan that does have less data or data depending on
Speaker 1: how you say it, that might entirely be an option
Speaker 1: for you, especially if you're spending a good amount of
Speaker 1: time either at home or at work. And obviously everyone
Speaker 1: has WiFi or just about everyone should have WiFi at work.
Speaker 1: And so while like on the surface, these numbers don't
Speaker 1: sound like enough right, like you see here like oh,
Speaker 1: you get like one gig of data, but gosh, really,
Speaker 1: how much do you really need if you're going to
Speaker 1: be on WiFi? You know, that's why at the earlier
Speaker 1: I was mentioned going back and looking at your statements
Speaker 1: and seeing how much are you actually using, because I
Speaker 1: think there might be a good chance that folks are
Speaker 1: using a good bit less than they maybe even realize. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so just a couple more companies Matt that if you're
Speaker 1: looking for single line service you should consider. And by
Speaker 1: the way, I know this is a lot of information.
Speaker 1: We will link to all these companies in the show
Speaker 1: notes as well. Unreal Mobile you can get a gig
Speaker 1: for ten dollars or two gigs for fifteen dollars. Again
Speaker 1: that comes with unlimited talking text. That's kind of the
Speaker 1: way all these plans are set up now. Project five,
Speaker 1: which is a product of Google. Yeah, and with Project
Speaker 1: five you pay twenty dollars a month and then one
Speaker 1: dollar per ten of a gig of data that you use.
Speaker 1: So I kind of like that map that they are
Speaker 1: not just charging per single gig, but they're going down
Speaker 1: to the tenth of a gig of data, so you
Speaker 1: can essentially know that you're not paying for more than
Speaker 1: you're using, and if you're a light user, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be paying very little. And Project five from everything I've
Speaker 1: heard all the reviews, and they've got really really good
Speaker 1: service because they use multiple networks actually as their backbone. Man.
Speaker 1: And of those uh sort of off brands you know,
Speaker 1: names specifically five and Republic Wireless are the most highly
Speaker 1: rated across the board and with consumer reports, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's actually worth mentioning as well that the sort
Speaker 1: of non traditional cell phone carriers they all run off
Speaker 1: of the different major networks that you've heard of right,
Speaker 1: and so it's not like they've built out their own
Speaker 1: networks that they're trying to compete their buying space on
Speaker 1: these major networks. So you're instead of paying T Mobile
Speaker 1: money for T Mobile, you can pay one of these
Speaker 1: their companies money and Republic Wireless. Yeah, T Mobile network
Speaker 1: at a much cheaper price. Yeah, exactly. And so Exfinity
Speaker 1: they run off of Verizons LTE network and Unreal Mobile,
Speaker 1: Uh they run off of the Sprint network. And so
Speaker 1: they're essential really the sort of like generic you know,
Speaker 1: they're like the store brand version of these trusted name
Speaker 1: brands that you've heard of, like Taste e os in Cena, Cheerios.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's only reminds me of Kroger. I think
Speaker 1: it's Kroger. In college, I used to get their frosted
Speaker 1: mini spooners and that was like the frosted mini wheat equivalent. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you gotta love the off brand names that they get
Speaker 1: creative or they just don't because they don't they don't
Speaker 1: care at all. I will call it spooners. It's fine,
Speaker 1: it'll be delicious. So, now that we've talked about Matt,
Speaker 1: some of the best selfone plans for single lines. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about some of the ones for two lines, and
Speaker 1: really some of the ones that we just mentioned as
Speaker 1: single lines are some of the best for two people.
Speaker 1: The best discounts ultimately end up coming for people that
Speaker 1: do family plans, but I wanted to mention if you're
Speaker 1: over fifty five, T Mobile has a thirty five dollar
Speaker 1: per line for a seventy dollar total for those two lines,
Speaker 1: and you're getting that unlimited plan. And another great feature
Speaker 1: about T moble, which will get into a little bit
Speaker 1: further on out, is their overseas coverage. So if you're
Speaker 1: over fifty five and do travel overseas a lot, that
Speaker 1: T Mobile plan is a really good deal. T Mobile
Speaker 1: is also offering fifty discounts for military members, So just
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to mention both of those in case
Speaker 1: you're in either of those boats chedule. And like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you can't beat the family plan, right, the best cell
Speaker 1: phone coverage that you're gonna be able to get uh
Speaker 1: is gonna be for four lines or more, and that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a family plan. Specifically, Cricket Wireless, they've got
Speaker 1: an awesome plan where you can get four lines of
Speaker 1: unlimited data for one dollars and that kind of gets
Speaker 1: down to that sort of sweet spot. You know, you've
Speaker 1: got four lines hundred bucks. Do the math. That's twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars a line that's getting really, really stinking close
Speaker 1: to our twenty three dollars, a line without the hassle
Speaker 1: of getting these deadbeats to pay up. Uh, and you're
Speaker 1: having to send them texts? Yeah, exactly. Have you ever
Speaker 1: had anybody not paying? Actually, know, everybody's been pretty cool, nice, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just you know people that forget Every once in a
Speaker 1: while you have to send a reminder. Yeah, right, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that. Well. Yeah, and I want
Speaker 1: to mention that Sprint probably offers the best family line
Speaker 1: deal right now. And I promise not not a homer
Speaker 1: for Sprint, even though we're on them, But but if
Speaker 1: you transfer from a different cell phone company to Sprint
Speaker 1: right now, they will give you a free entire year
Speaker 1: of service for your family. It's kind of crazy. We'll
Speaker 1: put a link to it in the show notes so
Speaker 1: that you can check it out. That's insane. It's it's insane.
Speaker 1: They've had that offer going on for a little while,
Speaker 1: and really, man, he can save you upwards of fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred dollars in a single year, you know, by essentially
Speaker 1: having free cell phone service for that time, and then
Speaker 1: after that it goes back up to the normal price point,
Speaker 1: but then you're free to switch to another company at
Speaker 1: that point in time. I would just say, if you
Speaker 1: do have, like, you know, a family plan somewhere else,
Speaker 1: you know, consider that free Sprint offer because that's that's
Speaker 1: a huge savings in just a year. Awesome. Man. There's
Speaker 1: are some great uh specifics when it comes to you know, plans,
Speaker 1: but with carriers, you know, if you still feel that
Speaker 1: you still really need to have Horizon because you live
Speaker 1: in an area maybe out in the country three where
Speaker 1: they're basically the only ones that you're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to get coverage with, you know, consider Total Wireless or
Speaker 1: Exfinity Mobile. They are on that Verizon network, but for
Speaker 1: way cheaper than the actual fancy Verizon plan. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: if you really need unlimited data, the best providers of
Speaker 1: that at the most reasonable prices that our major networks
Speaker 1: are T Mobile and Sprint, and they are especially good
Speaker 1: if you also travel overseas and want cheap coverage as well. Yedjuel,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk more here about the international travel benefits.
Speaker 1: In addition to that, we're gonna talk about how you
Speaker 1: can save even more money on your cell phone plan
Speaker 1: right after this break, All right, Joel, back to cell
Speaker 1: phone plans. I wanted to mention this real quick before
Speaker 1: we keep moving, Uh, that the cell phone plans space,
Speaker 1: you know, like the industry, it's always changing and deals
Speaker 1: are easy to find because have such a competitive marketplace now,
Speaker 1: you know, like we've got the big carriers, but then
Speaker 1: on top of that, the these smaller companies have kind
Speaker 1: of sprouted up and are piggybacking off of those networks
Speaker 1: and taking advantage of the unused network, and what that
Speaker 1: means is a lower price for us. Yeah. Man, there
Speaker 1: are so many companies offering really cheap cell phone service
Speaker 1: that we haven't even talked about. Right, We've covered some
Speaker 1: of the cheap ones, but there are dozens of companies
Speaker 1: in this space now offering ridiculously cheap prices depending on
Speaker 1: what you're looking for. So depending on your usage, let's
Speaker 1: say you use two hundred megabytes of data or something
Speaker 1: ridiculously small, there are companies that cater exactly to your
Speaker 1: specific needs. So, you know, shopping around and doing your
Speaker 1: research is really important. Yeah, and let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: talk about to the international travel benefits. And so if
Speaker 1: you travel overseas, you might want to spend some more
Speaker 1: for service than you normally would to get that free
Speaker 1: robust international coverage, right, Project Fi, T Mobile, and Sprint
Speaker 1: are all gonna be the best options for you there.
Speaker 1: Uh So for you, it could be worth a few
Speaker 1: extra bucks a month to you to have that service
Speaker 1: if you'll use it. Yeah, man, And so we're on
Speaker 1: Sprint and they've got almost as good of an international
Speaker 1: plan as Project Fi and T Mobile. Not not quite,
Speaker 1: but they cover you in a ton of countries around
Speaker 1: the world. And we can get free slow data, free texting,
Speaker 1: and twenty cents a minute phone calls. So it's just
Speaker 1: really nice to have that option. Some of the major
Speaker 1: old school providers like A T and T and Verizon
Speaker 1: will charge you a fee per day to use your
Speaker 1: plan internationally. Uh And so I would say if you
Speaker 1: do travel internationally a lot, you should really think about
Speaker 1: going with either Project Fi, T Mobile or Sprint. You know,
Speaker 1: look at what they offer, and you're not gonna get
Speaker 1: like blazing fast LTE speeds, you know, while you're in
Speaker 1: Europe on these plans, but you will get something like
Speaker 1: really solid and it comes included in the price of
Speaker 1: your monthly bill. Ye. Man, that's not actually something I've
Speaker 1: ever done, you know, taking my cell phone over into
Speaker 1: a different country and used it before. I think I
Speaker 1: would immediately feel like I've like upgraded the baller status.
Speaker 1: You know, if I had my phone and I just
Speaker 1: pulled it out and started using it like I normally
Speaker 1: would have. I'm not gonna lie, man, I take a
Speaker 1: minimum cool one international trip a year. I like to
Speaker 1: take two if I can, but you fancy Yeah, And
Speaker 1: so it is so nice to be able to essentially
Speaker 1: just not do anything and take my phone with me.
Speaker 1: I can see how nice that would be. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm envisioning in it. I'm just like, Man, that
Speaker 1: would be freaking awesome. And we're paying twenty three bucks
Speaker 1: a month and I still get that awesome international service.
Speaker 1: I love that. And Matt, I wanted to mention that
Speaker 1: there are other discounts that you could potentially qualify for,
Speaker 1: maybe through your employer, through your local credit union, or
Speaker 1: through other companies that you do business with. So on
Speaker 1: that Sprint bill, Man, we get off a huge chunk
Speaker 1: of that bill just because my employer offers a discount
Speaker 1: if you join up on a sprint plan, which suits. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like the benefit that you receive through your employer is
Speaker 1: distributed to all eight of us now hopefully it's hopefully
Speaker 1: it's in Yeah. And my credit union, man, they offer
Speaker 1: something similar. They offer a ten percent discount, So not
Speaker 1: quite as strong as my employer. But make sure to
Speaker 1: look around and see what your credit union offers or
Speaker 1: what the your place of business offers. There might be
Speaker 1: a sweet deal like waiting there in the wings for
Speaker 1: you that you just haven't jumped on yet. Um, And
Speaker 1: all it takes is to open your eyes and look around.
Speaker 1: It's worth doing some research to see if the play
Speaker 1: that you're currently on, if there's a discount for it.
Speaker 1: Just because of the place where you work. You know,
Speaker 1: it almost seems like that that's a small amount of money,
Speaker 1: and it is right if it's just for one month.
Speaker 1: But like we said earlier, this is a bill that
Speaker 1: we pay every single month, and so if you're saving
Speaker 1: ten percent or if you're able to say that's a
Speaker 1: huge deal. When you're paying that every single month, it
Speaker 1: might feel like you're coupon ing. If it's just a
Speaker 1: single purchase, like a one time thing, and that it
Speaker 1: may not be worth your time. But if you're able
Speaker 1: to do that that one time and then off every
Speaker 1: single bill for the next year or two years or
Speaker 1: however long that you have that plan, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: some substantial savings that will be well worth the time
Speaker 1: to to to know that information, yeah completely, And then
Speaker 1: other fees to like the dumb activation fee you know
Speaker 1: that's always involved when you get a new phone, be
Speaker 1: sure to call up and see if you can get
Speaker 1: them the way of that. This is something we've talked
Speaker 1: about on a previous episode, the art of asking for
Speaker 1: a discount. But even just asking, you know what, like
Speaker 1: the worst they can say is no, But see if
Speaker 1: there's a way where you can figure out, like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a nice guy, you're a nice guy, like
Speaker 1: that whole thing. Maybe you feel silly, you know, saying
Speaker 1: it that way, but just see if there's the different
Speaker 1: fees and you'll be surprised at the control that the
Speaker 1: teller has, you know, the person that's ringing you up
Speaker 1: um or maybe you happen to be getting checked out
Speaker 1: by a manager, and they have the ability to give
Speaker 1: you an even steeper discount. It never hurts to ask. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I may be mentioned in that episode that
Speaker 1: Twitter can be a great place to ask her a discount.
Speaker 1: So consider reaching out to your cell phone company on
Speaker 1: Twitter on the social media. Uh and and maybe they'll
Speaker 1: have like a little more wiggle room to help you
Speaker 1: with some of those silly fees. And and that activation
Speaker 1: fee specifically, it's often like thirty to forty dollars depending
Speaker 1: on the cell phone company, and it's just kind of
Speaker 1: a bogus fee. And so I would just recommend giving
Speaker 1: it a shot. I feel like ninety percent of the
Speaker 1: time I have had success giving them to waive that fee.
Speaker 1: That reminded me of Kate. So I mentioned my brother
Speaker 1: in law, you know, they had their baby. He mentioned
Speaker 1: that she went to the hospital today and she went
Speaker 1: to the parking debt and the guy that was sitting
Speaker 1: there to you know, let people through, and she didn't
Speaker 1: ask him for a just you know, she didn't ask
Speaker 1: him for a free pass. But she was just friendly,
Speaker 1: being nice. You know, she's happy to be there and
Speaker 1: you know, I go see a new baby. And the
Speaker 1: guy was just like well, how long are you gonna
Speaker 1: be here? And she's like, you know, like probably an hour.
Speaker 1: And he's like, here you go, and he reached in
Speaker 1: his pocket and pulled out like a free pass a chaser,
Speaker 1: like the car that you're stick in after Yeah, and
Speaker 1: she said, I'll thank you so much. I really appreciate it,
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of being friendly and being human
Speaker 1: it can go a long way and saving you a buck. Doubt, buddy.
Speaker 1: All Right, so we gotta tell people about this amazing
Speaker 1: beer we just had Casa Agrea Zarza marone thanks to
Speaker 1: getting to my buddy Josh. Josh, we owe you a
Speaker 1: huge one because this beer is the best. Dude, this
Speaker 1: is delight. This was good blackberries, cranberries and raspberries in
Speaker 1: a Flander style brown. It was like berry jam with
Speaker 1: like a little bit of tartness and oh dude, it
Speaker 1: was absolutely beautiful. And I will say it poured very
Speaker 1: brown like when I when I when we poured it
Speaker 1: at the before we started recording, I was kind of
Speaker 1: shocked at how sort of muddy water it looked, which
Speaker 1: sounds incredibly unappetizing. But this beer was incredibly delicious. You know.
Speaker 1: It was a sour One of the things I love
Speaker 1: about sour beers is that for me, it doesn't fill
Speaker 1: me up. For some reason, I can if I wanted to,
Speaker 1: I could keep drinking sour beers. It doesn't hit you
Speaker 1: quite like a stout does right where it feels like
Speaker 1: you're just drinking a lot of calories. Likely the a
Speaker 1: b V on this one is six point four percent,
Speaker 1: so it's pretty light. You and I are splitting this
Speaker 1: bottle here. But but yeah, that's one of the things
Speaker 1: I found man with with sour beers, is that something
Speaker 1: about them it just doesn't you know, it doesn't fill
Speaker 1: me up, you know I'm talking about I definitely do.
Speaker 1: And I will say, Man, you know I mentioned this
Speaker 1: on the show before that a sour beer with fruit
Speaker 1: mixed in there is one of my favorite all time styles.
Speaker 1: And I feel like this is my first beer from
Speaker 1: this brewery, Casa Agria, and man, they just kind of
Speaker 1: vaulted up to the top of my list. I totally
Speaker 1: want to have more stuff from them because this hit
Speaker 1: the nail on the head in one of my favorite
Speaker 1: beer styles ever. Yeah. So this is a Flanders brown,
Speaker 1: So typically I think Flaander's reds tend to be a
Speaker 1: little more popular, and the flavor profile of those tend
Speaker 1: to be maybe a little more forward, like in your face,
Speaker 1: kind of aggressive. And we you and I were talking
Speaker 1: kind of off air earlier, how this is a lot
Speaker 1: more subtle. It's a brown nail it, so it's a
Speaker 1: Flaander's brown and it kind of bramps up to that flavor,
Speaker 1: but it just doesn't smack you in the face like
Speaker 1: right when you drink it. It's kind of subtle. I
Speaker 1: kind of ease is this way in your taste buds,
Speaker 1: And oh my gosh, it's like nicely balanced. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's so well balanced. Even though Scott just massive amounts
Speaker 1: of flavor, it still feels balanced. Yeah. It what builds.
Speaker 1: It's got all those berries. Yeah, it's just it's just wonderful,
Speaker 1: all right, Joel, let's hit him with our final thoughts. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: the first thing I want to say is people are
Speaker 1: paying way too much for their cell phone service. So
Speaker 1: if you keep getting that bill every month, open it
Speaker 1: up instead of letting it auto pay, remember what you're paying,
Speaker 1: look it in the face, and then decide, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pay less because this is just ridiculous. Yeah, man. Also,
Speaker 1: when you're looking at that statement, look at how much
Speaker 1: you're actually using. I think you'll find that you might
Speaker 1: be using much less than you think. When so much
Speaker 1: of our time is spent in locations that have WiFi,
Speaker 1: whether it be at home or at work or at
Speaker 1: a friend's house, you'll find that your on WiFi and
Speaker 1: that you're not actually using your data. So if you're
Speaker 1: able to use less of your cell phones data, you're
Speaker 1: gonna end up paying less. Yeah, and for a list
Speaker 1: of some of the cell phone carriers that are providing
Speaker 1: the best deals, whether that be for single lines, multiple lines,
Speaker 1: or even four lines or more. If you're gonna do
Speaker 1: the family plan, go to our website check it out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the cell phone space it's always changing and it's a
Speaker 1: really competitive landscape. So if you haven't shopped for cell
Speaker 1: phone service in a while, chances are you're paying way
Speaker 1: too much. Also, there's a good chance that your company
Speaker 1: or a company that you do business with, offers you
Speaker 1: an additional discount on the cell phone plan that you're
Speaker 1: currently on. Look into that. Because I'm saving on my
Speaker 1: plan because of an employer sponsored deal. And to that,
Speaker 1: all eight of us say thank you. Papa Joel, no problem.
Speaker 1: Little Birdie's all right. Everyone. Thanks for listening. Our home
Speaker 1: on the web is how to money dot com. We'll
Speaker 1: have shown up for this episode with links to each
Speaker 1: and every specific cellphone provider that we mentioned. That's right,
Speaker 1: And if you like what you hear and have found
Speaker 1: our podcast helpful, let us know. You can give a
Speaker 1: s review on Apple Podcasts. We'd love to hear from you,
Speaker 1: and while you're there, be sure to subscribe. Until next time. Buddy,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, Man Best Friends Out.